Table Of ContentReading Stories, A5, 7mm spine_Lifelong Learning John Fi#6BF35 17/12/2012 10:57 Page 1
reading stories with reading stories with
young children young children
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Robin Campbell N Robin Campbell
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It should be obvious that reading stories with young children
greatly assists their literacy development, yet this often appears to R
be forgotten in the rush to add still more new activities to the I
curriculum. Reading stories with young children seeks to redress E
the balance, focusing on what remains the most important basic S
requirement for learning.
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The book explores the ways in which reading stories with young
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children can best enhance their literacy skills. The text provides
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examples of how to enthral children by reading them stories and
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provides practical suggestions about follow-up activities that will
develop the listeners’ literacy. The extensive examples drawn from Y
home and school will make this book an essential resource. The
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links into writing, drawing and making, as well as to other
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curriculum areas are made explicit.
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Teachers of young children, teaching assistants and all those who
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work with young children will find this book invaluable. Parents too
will be interested to note how the readings with their own children
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are subsequently developed in educational settings.
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Robin Campbell is emeritus professor of primary education at the I
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University of Hertfordshire. A primary school teacher and head
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teacher before teaching at university, he has had fifteen books
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published including Literacy from home to school: reading with
Aliceand Phonics Naturally. E
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ISBN: 978-1-85856-452-4
Trentham Books
www.trentham-books.co.uk
Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page i
Reading Stories with Young Children
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Reading Stories with
Young Children
Robin Campbell
Trentham Books
Stoke on Trent, UK and Sterling, USA
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Trentham Books Limited
Westview House 22883 Quicksilver Drive
734 London Road Sterling
Oakhill VA 20166-2012
Stoke on Trent USA
Staffordshire
England ST4 5NP
©2009 Robin Campbell
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
First published 2009
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN:978 1 85856 452 4
Designed and typeset by Trentham Print Design Ltd, Chester
and printed in Great Britain by Page Bros (Norwich) Ltd.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction• 1
Chapter 2
Reading stories interactively• 15
Chapter 3
Reading stories in the classroom:getting started• 37
Chapter 4
The importance of narrative and quality books• 45
Chapter 5
Reading stories and print features• 63
Chapter 6
Activities based on reading stories• 75
Chapter 7
Interactive reading activities• 91
Chapter 8
Interactive writing activities• 103
Chapter 9
Mathematics,science and social studies activities • 113
Chapter 10
A last word• 119
References• 121
Children’s books • 129
Index• 131
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1
Introduction
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hen young children have stories read to them as part of
a normal day they learn about reading, they act like
readers and they become readers with an interest in
books. Young children demonstrate this to adults constantly. Re-
cently, after just a couple of readings by an adult of Four Fierce
Kittens(Dunbar, 1991), Louie age 3 years, 9 months demonstrated
how much he had learned of a repeated sentence in the story:
Adult Said the marmalade kitten,
spiking her claws
‘I am a terrible tiger!
I shall hunt hen out of her hutch.’
And she tried to growl
Louie (But she didn’t know how)
She could only go...
miaow miaow
And hen went
CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK
Adult Said the black little kitten
with a glint in his eye ...
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READINGSTORIESWITH YOUNGCHILDREN
Louie acted like a reader as he recalled a repeated sentence of the
story. So although he was not yet attending directly to the print, he
was well on the way to becoming a reader.
Reading stories with young children at home and in school has a
long and illustrious history. Huey (1908) argued that the parent
and the young child reading a book was the road to success: ‘the
secret of it all lies in parent’s reading aloud to and with the child’
(p332). A century later an overview of the research on reading
aloud led by Zuckerman concluded that reading stories at home
‘promotes emergent literacy and language development’ and ‘a
love of reading’ (Duursma, Augustyn and Zuckerman, 2008). There
are numerous studies that have emphasised the importance of
reading stories with young children. When we create book-loving
schools and homes children respond by wanting to read (Michael
Rosen.co.uk). The enjoyment, the learning and the encourage-
ment of the child towards reading have all sustained the activity.
But recently the primary school curriculum has become saturated
with documents, strategies, targets and testing, testing, testing. So
much so that sometimes there may appear to be so many
accountability boxes to be ticked and plans to complete that
fundamental aspects of literacy can be forgotten. Sadly, story read-
ing is one key area that might seem possible to put to one side, as
other more mundane activities have to be shown to be completed.
Yet story reading must remain as a daily feature of primary school
life because the literacy learning thus achieved and the desire to
read that is created are far too important to be lost.
An earlier book of mine appeared in the USA with the title Read-
Alouds with Young Children (Campbell, 2001). The term ‘read-
aloud’ is used in the United States to describe the worldwide
phenomenon of an adult reading a book to and with a young child
or a group of children (Trelease, 1995). Another text from America,
although written by Australian author Mem Fox (2001), refers to
‘Reading Aloud to Our Children’. In New Zealand the same practice
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INTRODUCTION
is termed ‘storybook reading’ (Phillips and McNaughton, 1990)
while in the United Kingdom it is most often called ‘story reading’
(Campbell, 1990) or simply Reading stories with young children.
This book explores reading stories both at home and at school
with young children. Most of the observations for it took place in
classrooms in England, predominately nursery or pre-school
classrooms with 3 and 4 year olds, 5 year olds in reception class
and 6 and 7 year olds in years 1 and 2. A few observations extended
to other primary classrooms up to year 6 (age 11).
A story reading can stand alone as an enjoyable activity, but for
most children being able to respond to the story extends their
enjoyment and furthers their understanding. Reading stories with
young childrenfocuses on the reading and the activities that can
be developed from it. Teachers of young children and teacher edu-
cators may find this book useful as a means of reconsidering story
reading and its contribution to a literacy curriculum. Parents too
will be interested to note how reading stories at home provides a
foundation for children’s reading and writing development.
During readings the adult often encourages the youngest children
to participate as the story is being read. So Louie was already con-
tributing key phrases during a story reading when he was 2 years
old.
Adult ‘A leak in the roof.
Oh,what bad luck!
This is a job for...’
Louie ‘Fix-It Duck.’
In that instance the frequent use at the end of a sentence of Fix-It
Duck(Alborough, 2001) made it easy for Louie to become part of
the interactive reading. In other books the use of rhyming like
luck/duckhelps the child to contribute to the reading.
Then subsequently, not only do the children contribute, they also
respond in various ways to the story that has been read (Neuman,
3
